"That's work-related, right?

Reason #262 to not work for someone else;
"The Miromanager"

So, it’s Friday again. Another week has passed and it’s time to start winding down. I’ve got my typical Friday-friendly t-shirt and jeans with Hard Rock Café hat on. It wouldn’t be Friday otherwise. The anticipation of next week’s short 3-day pre-Thanksgiving work week hangs in the air and has everyone feeling pretty good. When I got to the office, I started out with my normal prepare-for-the-day, and more importantly, prepare-for-the-weekend routine. Styrofoam cup full of steaming no-name brand instant hot chocolate to warm me up…check. Boot-up the computer…check. Open work email and check for company notices…check. Layout my first project folder…check. Make my list of things to do today…check. Open my “Brain Vomit” spreadsheet so I can jot down any random epiphanies I might have during the workday…ch… Suddenly, my boss, “Poptart” is standing behind me staring at my screen with paycheck in hand and smugly says, “That’s work-related, right?”

Hhhhhh…… Seriously??

After a very awkward few seconds, as I alt-tabbed my way back to a work-related screen, Poptart left and I resumed my now-interrupted workday. Not even two minutes later, through my peripheral vision, I noticed him walking towards my cubical again, and this time I didn’t even look up at him. In knew exactly what he was doing, and it really rubbed me the wrong way. Without stopping, he nonchalantly circumvented my work area. When he was no longer within my peripheral vision I knew he had to be behind me. Without moving my head, I looked up over my computer monitor at his reflection in the class partition that divided my space and the next just in time to see him look ever his shoulder at my screen.

As if this wasn’t’ bad enough, he did exactly the same thing AGAIN just 4 or 5 minutes later!! What the crap?? Why is he busting my chops today??? Did he think I wouldn’t notice? Don’t managers, supervisors and bosses know that a happy employee is a productive employee? His obvious attempts to catch me off-task only fueled my desire to NOT be productive!!

You know, normally, I’m a great worker. I consistently have some of the best numbers in the department. I’m always on time, I meet deadlines, and get along well with my co-workers. And yet somehow this retard feels the need to micromanage me based one single out-of-context moment when I was not looking at a work-related screen. I would actually have understood his suspicions had he at least caught me on an offensive or distasteful website (which I don’t do either). That, at least would seem validated. But a spreadsheet of randomly jotted ideas??

Please!!! This is like when retarded cops pull people over and ticket them for having one headlight out. Seriously? There aren’t enough drug users and domestic violence cases out there to focus on? Ugh…

The Winning Edge

I heard two pretty awesome concepts today while listening to some audio books. The first concept was about what it takes to beat the competition in business. I thought this analogy was really brilliant;

“If a horse runs in a horse race and comes in first, by a nose, it wins ten times the prize money of the horse that comes in second…by a nose. Now does this mean that the horse that comes in first by a nose is ten times better than the horse that comes in second? Does it mean that it’s even twice as good? Does it mean that it’s fifty percent better or even ten percent better? The truth of the matter is that it’s only a “nose” better, but the difference in prize money is enormous.

The person who gets the sale for their company gets one hundred percent of the business and one hundred percent of the commission. The person who does not gets zero. This does not mean that the person who does not get the sale is only half as good as the person who gets the sale. It just means that they were slightly different while selling. The key to success is to develop that winning edge.”

The second one was about developing our intelligence. In this book, the author was expressing a belief that there are multiple facets of one’s intelligence. I like the breakdown and thought it even supported the first audio book’s point about developing the winning edge. The more of these areas of intelligence that we can develop, the better suited we can be to gain the winning edge in that area.

1- Lingual Intelligence – The ability to grasp vocabulary, grammar, and languages
2- Numerical Intelligence – The ability to understand numbers, mathematics and logic
3- Spatial Intelligence – The ability envision 3-dimensionally within the mind’s eye
4- Musical / Rhythmic Intelligence – The ability to read, write and play music and rhythm
5- Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence – The ability to coordinate one’s physical activity at will
6- Interpersonal Intelligence – The ability to understand, communicate and relate to others
7- Intrapersonal Intelligence – The ability to understand and master one’s self
8- Naturalistic Intelligence – The ability to understand one’s environment and nature
9- Visionary Intelligence – The ability to foresee, predict, and anticipate trends and cycles

A Good Day

The last 24 hours have been really good. Despite what happens the rest of the day today, I've placed myself one step closer to two of my goals.

A few weeks ago I purchased 'Cashflow for Kids', a game created by Robert Kiyosaki to help teach kids all about fiscal responsibility. K and I played it by ourselves a few days ago to get a feel for it, and then last night, because she was just going off-track and didn't have any school this morning, K and I allowed my 6 year-old, M, to stay up late. Once the other two kids were in bed K and I decided to play the game with M. It turned out even better than I had hoped. Not only did M seem to grasp the game quickly (which I expected), but K seemed to really enjoy teaching it to her. I was very impressed. It was awesome watching my wife teach my daughter about concepts like assets vs. liabilities and income vs. expenses. K and I have never enjoyed conversing about that stuff to each other. Like every other married couple, finances have not always been the easiest thing to work with. We manage, but never easily. Seeing this game in action was much more than fun for me. It was so satisfying to watch M get excited by her good fortune as she passed paydays, collected money, made purchases and learned from sobering pseudo financial experiences. One step closer to seeing M succeed in life financially.


Today during breaks and lunch I finally finished my 6th Training Wheels story too! It's called "Dig Another Hole" and I'm really looking forward to reading to the M and E tonight at bedtime. I've already given them the title, and they've been asking about it. I do that on purpose so that I'll stay motivated to finish each one. I've already got my next topic picked out and will be starting it tomorrow. One step closer to publishing my Training Wheels stories!

It's been a good day.